


Mistaken Identity

by TheStraggletag



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Floof, Rumbelle Christmas in July, Rumbelle Christmas in July 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 14:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13389777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStraggletag/pseuds/TheStraggletag
Summary: There’s nothing quite like having people confuse you and your crush for expecting parents.





	Mistaken Identity

It had taken Bae a year to introduce him to his girlfriend, his old resentment and mistrust making him wary of how things would go. Royce didn’t really blame him, after all that had happened between them. He was happy to have been given a second chance at all, really. Cristina- “Please, call me Tink, everyone does”- Green turned out to be a lovely woman. Curious, vivacious and upbeat, and most importantly truly in love with his son. He would have welcomed her in the family even if he’d thought her a horrible person, but thankfully that hadn’t been the case. Then again Bae had always been a great judge of character. Not in the way Royce himself was, cerebral and calculating, but in an empathetic way. He saw into the hearts of people.

It was such an ability that first made him distance himself from his father, back when he’d been nothing more than a twisted mass of hurt and anger. And though it had hurt like nothing else in the world had ever had, Royce was glad Bae did it. It allowed him to grow emotionally healthy and carefree, had allowed him to build himself a little family. And had allowed him to, eventually, be open to reconnecting with him, to try to repair what Gold had thought irrevocably broken. And so, little by little, Bae had introduced him to his close circle of friends, his little New York family. Perhaps as a las passive-aggressive gesture he’d started with Fa Mulan, former roommate and chef who took six months to stop giving him the stink-eye. Wendy Darling, though friendly, seemed to always be wary of him, as if she half-expected him to snap at any given moment. Her brothers were little better, though they were a tad more discreet about it.

“Sir, can I help you?”

“I’m waiting for someone.”

It had taken Bae weeks to tell him of his first days in New York City, having ran away from his mother’s home. At sixteen he’d managed to take odd jobs until landing steady work as a busboy for the restaurant in which Mulan worked. It was her idea to put him up for the night when his landlord evicted him out of the blue but it was her roommate’s idea to sort of adopt him. She’d taken one look at his scrawny teen self and had decided he needed someone. Royce had no doubt Bae had fought tooth and nail against the very notion, still angry at the world and everyone in it, but there had been nothing but love in his eyes when he’d introduced him to “Mama Belle”. With a name like that, he’d imagined someone different. Matronly, round, the sort of person that would adopt waifs and strays and keep one too many cats. Reality was… entirely different. Belle French was scarcely ten years older than Bae, a librarian working the Acquisitions department of the NYPL. She was small, even for his standards, and delicate-looking, though incredibly energetic at the same time, a force of nature. Neal found it easier to cave in to her gentle mothering than fight it, even though he was clearly unused to such attention.

Mama Belle was also embarrassingly attractive. A mass of gently-curled brown-red hair, impossible blue eyes, the most enchanting Australian accent he’d ever heard… it wasn’t fair. He’d spent the first weeks after meeting her learning how to talk to her in words other than pathetic monosyllabic. Bae, the little shit, seemed to love it. He’d been afraid his father would lash out at Belle, a person who had gotten to be there for Bae when he hadn’t, who was privy to a part of his life that Gold was struggling to access. To find him instead falling under Belle’s spell was, he often said, karma.

It was Royce’s reaction to Belle that finally made Bae introduce him to Cristina, a mechanical engineer working for some Manhattan-based company specializing in green energies or the like, something to do with solar panels that Tink had tried to explain to him at least five times since he’d met her. Fortunately for him his son’s girlfriend seemed to be on his side, determined to see father and son working on repairing their relationship.

He considered it a triumph to have been one of the first people to hear about the pregnancy, and the later announcement that they were expecting twins. At forty-seven Royce felt a bit young for grandchildren but he didn’t have to pretend to be excited. As unlikely as it seemed he loved children. Children didn’t judge, didn’t criticise, weren’t malicious. Children loved unconditionally, passionately, without pretence or expectations. He’d loved raising Bae, even though they’d been dirt-poor at the time, and had hoped for more children in the future. And though none of his dreams had come true he now had, in a way, a second chance at that. He was wealthy now and had little to spend it on other than grandkids so when Bae asked him for help outfitting the nursery- “Tink’s got her hands full trying to finish as much as possible at work before maternity leave and between work and school I just don’t have the time”- he’d agreed comically fast. He hadn’t considered the dynamics of it at the time, hadn’t considered how little he knew about modern childcare products or Bae and Tink’s own tastes. When Bae had been born, they had been too poor for anything not donated or second-hand, and had done without much of what he was sure his son and daughter-in-law would consider essential.

“I’m sorry I’m late, but I’m here.”

Belle appeared next to him out of thin air, so deep in his own thoughts he’d been. Obligingly he ducked his head a little so she could kiss his cheek, something that had taken some getting used to, and smiled shyly. He was glad the fear of failing his son had pushed him into calling in reinforcements, he was sure that otherwise he wouldn’t have dared bother Belle. She, gentle soul that she was, had jumped at the chance to help. At thirty-two she was of an age where friends and acquaintances were starting their own families so she was fairly familiar with what Bae and Tink would need for the twins, and were best to get it. He certainly wouldn’t have located the trendy Brooklyn store by himself, with its modern industrial designs very unlike his own preferences. But it was, he acknowledged, very much in keeping with what he had seen in Bae and Tink’s flat, modern and sleek.

“So, how does the grandpa-to-be feel? Must be a bit disconcerting, being a grandfather at such an age. I know when Bae joked about his children calling me "Grandma Belle” I almost hit him with a leather-bound edition of Les Mis.“

He winced, hoping the glee on his face wasn’t stupidly evident.

‘She thinks I’m young.’

"Okay, so here we can cover most of the furniture and bedding, but I want to go to other places for the clothing, get more diversity.”

It took her one raised hand and a smile to get the attention of an employee, who took one look at Gold’s Brioni suit and Belle’s patent leather designer shoes and snapped almost comically to action, ready to sell them every single item on the store. Thankfully, however, Belle seemed to have clear ideas about what she wanted and how she wanted it, and though she didn’t use intimidation or thinly-veiled threats bur rather charm and gentle coaxing, it reminded him a lot of his own deal-making process.

“Your wife is a very astute shopper, sir.”

It took him a moment to realise the shopping assistant was talking to him and a moment longer to realise she was talking to him about Belle. He felt himself grow hot in the face immediately, his mind searching for the words to explain the mistake without dissolving into unintelligible stammering.

“Come, sweetheart, I want you to see this adorable bassinet I just discovered.”

As he allowed himself to be lovingly-dragged by Belle he looked around, seeing many sets of eyes on them, many of them male, all of them faintly questioning. And it struck him that what they saw was an old, besotted fool and the pretty young thing he had somehow managed to knock up. They thought they were a couple, shopping and preparing for the arrival of a baby. And, embarrassingly, he found himself loving it. It was easy, especially given Belle’s tactile nature, to wrap an arm loosely around her waist and lean close to study the bassinet she was pointing at, easy to keep close to her as they moved on to the mobile section.

“Oh, God, who would buy that awful sheep mobile? It looks like it could be the centre part of a horror movie argument.”

It was the shopping experience he’d always wanted for when he’d been waiting for Bae’s arrival. A full wallet, a warm and enthusiastic partner and all the time in the world. Belle, with her whimsical yet practical nature, was a perfect complement to his own rather extravagant and over-indulgent tastes. Every purchase meant a lively debate, complete with good-natured bantering and a thrilling dash of flirting. It became a game of sorts between them, a gentle tug-o-war that lead to some interesting purchases.

“Tink’s gonna love that giant bunny lamp, just you wait.”

“I’m still telling Bae it was solely your idea. I’ll tell them I fought valiantly, made him proud.”

After the first store came others, and though he had a minor scare when Belle realised people were mistakenly assuming they were expecting parents, she didn’t seem to mind, rather the contrary. She played it up, made it a part of her rather formidable shopping strategy. And though he knew it was stupid, and risky and likely to leave him emotionally compromised, he gave himself over to the fantasy completely. It was bittersweet how easy it was, how little effort it required. He was prickly by nature, skittish and touch-shy, but it wasn’t so with Belle. Something about her made it dangerously easy to lower his defences, to let her in. By the time the sun began to sink and they exited their last shop, Toys R Us, he knew he was a goner.

“Well, this was fun, being pregnant for a day. Thanks for letting me tag along.”

“I couldn’t have done this without you. Had no idea babies required so many things, other than the obvious. And I’m glad that people’s assumptions didn’t make you uncomfortable. I’ll admit it was easier to pretend.”

Belle bit her lip, which he quickly categorised as the world’s most erotic unconscious habit, and tilted her head to the side.

“Maybe people could… mistake us for a couple on their first date? Say… on Sunday? I know a lovely place for brunch, most divine omelettes and a raspberry jam to die for.”

It took him a rather long amount of time to process her words, to pair them up with the hopeful, open expression on her face and the rather endearing nervous way in which she tugged a lock of hair behind her ear.

“Y-y-yes, that’d be… yes. Sunday. This Sunday. Around eleven?”

“Eleven would be perfect.”

* * *

A year later Mr and Mrs Gold were amused at having to pretend to be expecting their second son instead of their first.

“It’s the bunny lamp. No shop is going to forget the couple that bought a toddler-sized bunny night lamp.”

“Oh, hush and look at this adorable tree bookcase. I swear the moment I saw it I felt Gideon kick. We  _must_  have it.”


End file.
